


A Wretch Like Me

by Michael7123



Category: RWBY
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-03 21:51:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6627976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Michael7123/pseuds/Michael7123
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The smallest light always burns the brightest when surrounded by nothing but darkness. As Qrow reflects on his life in the midst of his darkest hour, Qrow stumbles across a light in a place he thought had long been extinguished. Takes place the night after Qrow saves Ruby and Yang from a Grimm attack in their childhood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Wretch Like Me

_Here I am, just like old times._ Qrow thought to himself as he sat alone in the dark. Qrow was completely blind at this hour of the night, but he didn't bother turning on the lights. It's not like he needed them. He knew this house - and everything that came with it - better than the back of his hand.

_Nothing's changed._ Sure, there were differences- but not in any way that truly mattered in the end. The cabin had remained practically identical for decades. Or rather, it was once again in the state that it always seemed to fall back into. It was the darkest hour of the night, and any faint ember of light that might have once resided within its wooden walls had long since been snuffed out.

_Why did I do it?_ Qrow had been trying to determine an answer to that question ever since the last Grimm outside the old barnyard had dissolved into black smoke. He had brought the two girls back to the cabin- he'd needed to carry them, the child was too exhausted to walk, and the toddler would never be able to walk that long- in silence. The same question wracking his brain again and again.

He hadn't planned on saving them. He had given up on saving anyone two years ago. He was only heading over to the barnyard to try and remember what it was like before. Back when he was just a little boy, and Raven had played with him. Back when he still had a big sister.

Then he'd seen the little blonde girl- practically the spitting image of his sister in all but hair color - standing paralyzed in fear. He'd heard the growls, and the next thing he had felt... it was as if someone had plunged a dagger into his chest, something that finally pierced the numbness that had surrounded him for two years. Qrow didn't know what to call it. It's not like he was a poet or something.

Whatever it was, it made Qrow fight with more ferocity than he had in his life. With more ferocity than his initiation, than when he was in the Vytal festival, even than when he had fought against his own sister. Back when he dared to assume some tiny ember of light was inside him.

He'd long accepted that he was the biggest fool in Remnant for ever believing that.

But yet, he'd saved the two of them. Yang Xiao Long and Ruby Rose.

_Why?_ As if to fill the silence of the house, that question roared in his mind, refusing to give him any rest.

Unable to sleep, he roamed, alone in the hollow home in the middle of a dark forest. Wandering past the kitchen where Raven had gashed her hand while making salad when they were young. Sitting on the couch, where Qrow had found Grandpa dead, having died while reading a newspaper one morning. Walking up the stairs, where he had seen Raven be a mother to Yang for the last time in her life. Past the empty master bedroom, once again devoid of life and love.

_It always comes back to this, doesn't it?_ The bird had left the nest. The dragon had been slain- or he might as well have been. The rose had wilted. And now, only Qrow was left, alone in the dark. Right back where he started. Every spark of light to pass under this roof had flickered and died. It was inevitable as the sun setting in the west.

But in a way Qrow was grateful for it. He was used to the dark by now. He had been for quite some time. And besides, he had been reliving all those memories of this miserable cabin for hours, intermixed with the question burning through his brain. He didn't want to see it. He didn't want to make the agony any more vivid than it already was.

He had done this for hours. Back and forth, back and forth. Repeating the same question time after time. And through it all, the darkness had been absolute.

Absolute, until Qrow saw some light hit the wall now in front of him as he faced the bedroom. Qrow turned around as he looked at the last light remaining in the cabin. It wasn't bright- just a small flicker of light coming out from a closed door across from the other bedroom. Into the room where Raven and Qrow had grown up in, where another new pair of siblings now rested. _Why is there a light? There shouldn't be any light now. It's too late for that._ As Qrow pondered the existence of the light, he heard the footsteps of a child walk across the room, followed by something placing itself down on a bed.

_Just go. Leave them. There's nothing more you can do for them._

That's what he should have done. If he was being honest with himself, if he were to put everything he'd ever done and add it all together, it didn't amount to much.

A small noise came from inside the room, the sound of a toddler's yawn.

Qrow grasped the knob on the door, and hesitated, frozen in place for over a minute. _This will only end in sorrow, and you know it._ He accused himself. _It always does in the end_. _Go, before you wind up dragging them down with you. Let them have their time in the light before the darkness takes them._

Here he was, a trained huntsmen, champion of the Vytal festival tournament, with more Grimm kills to his name than he could ever hope to count. Yet here he stood behind the door, too terrified to face a toddler.

_You gave up on caring about any of this two years ago._ The past two years had consisted of little more than him wandering from bar to bar in various towns on Patch, building up bar tabs he never intended to pay off. He was more of an animal than a man, really. _You don't deserve any better. Don't bring them down with you. Don't snuff out what hope those two girls have. That will happen on its own._ The denunciations churned through his mind, slowly numbing him again, and Qrow's grip on the doorknob began to loosen.

But then, the strangest of memories came to him. It wasn't anything he'd remembered for years.

Just a smile from Summer Rose. It had been after one of their missions. Not even an important one at that. Just some basic perimeter duty in Forever Fall.

Qrow opened the door.

There were two beds in the room, their headboards backed up against the wall across from the door, separated by a small nightstand with a lamp on it. Qrow was greeted by a familiar sight as he looked to the bed on his left. A young girl with long hair wrapped up in pigtails was sprawled under the sheets, covered in several bruises and scratches from her excursion in the forest, and sleeping the sleep of the utterly exhausted. He had seen his sister sleep like that more times than he could remember . _She's got far too much of Raven in her._ Yang was practically the spitting image of the big sister he had grown up with in this very house, down to sleeping in the same bed.

_And to think that she was trying to learn more about that woman. Damn it Tai, why did you tell her?_ The only thing keeping Qrow from flying away right then and there was the brilliant mop of golden hair on the young girl's head. Something to remind him that this child was more than just a younger form of his sister. _Nothing good came from my family. In spite of being birds, we Branwens always fall when all is said and done._

Even as Qrow lamented what he thought would be the fate of his little niece, he caught sight of something he hadn't expected to see out of the corner of his eye. To his right, resting on a desk, was a small red lamp.

And its light was on.

The lamp dimly lit up the room, fighting valiantly to cast out the suffocating darkness that was filling the cabin. But what struck Qrow the most wasn't the cabin- he was used to that by now. No, what struck Qrow was the sight waiting for him on the other bed.

Ozpin had told him a story years ago- that men and woman born with silver eyes were destined to be the greatest of warriors.

Yet all Qrow saw before him was a child.

The silver eyes where there- those brilliant pools of metal that belonged to the greatest huntress who had ever lived. Yet now those silver eyes belonged to the body of a small, trembling toddler dressed in a red onesie. She was sitting on her bed, her arms wrapped around her legs as she had her back against the headboard. Qrow looked at the frightened daughter of Summer Rose, and the knife he felt several hours ago plunged itself into his heart once again.

It was at this moment that the little girl looked up at him, and the strangest thing seemed to happen. The fear that feared her seemed to melt away, and she looked at him with an expression he no longer even knew the meaning of. She smiled, and spoke to him, "Hello mister hero."

_What?_ Qrow thought to himself in utter disbelief.

Even in the happiest days of his life, he had never considered himself to be one of those. Nobody had- except, of course, for Summer. But she didn't count- she was just too naive to see what he truly was. For a time, he had almost believed her. That had all changed two years ago.

The little girl seemed to answer the question he thought he only asked in his mind. Maybe he had spoken out loud. Maybe he had just looked confused. He didn't 's r's came out more like w's, making her age all the more apparent to him.

"Well, Mommy always told me stories about people who go around helping people and fighting the scary monsters. She said that they were heroes. You saved me and big sister from the scary monsters," the young girl whispered, clearly trying to make sure that she didn't wake up Yang, "so you're a hero. Just like Mommy." The little girl said as if it were as obvious as the sun rising in the east. This little girl with silver eyes, destined to become a warrior of great renown, the daughter of Summer Rose, was somehow looking up to him.

_Don't compare me to her. Don't you dare!_ Qrow was about to speak up in anger before he remembered who he was talking to.

Qrow shut his mouth before he said something he would regret. There was a silence between the two of them for a moment before Qrow found something to change the topic, "So... what are you doing up this late? Shouldn't you be in bed at this hour?"

"I'm in bed." Ruby said, looking down at the sheets she was sitting on. "I just can't sleep. My dreams are scary."

"Nightmares?" Qrow asked.

The little girl nodded her head on confirmation, "With scary monsters."

_Well... what the hell do I do now?_ The only experience Qrow had in dealing with kids was when he had briefly helped take care of Yang in her infancy. "So..." Qrow hesitated before asking. "What can I do to help?"

The little girl looked down as if she were ashamed to admit what she had to say. "Well, when I have really scary dreams, Mommy tells me a story. That makes me feel better."

_I don't have any story to tell. Unless..._

_Unless..._

Qrow didn't dare. The idea was ridiculous. He had never lived up to that, and he knew that he never would.

But then again, here was the daughter of Summer Rose, calling him a hero right in front of his very eyes.

Qrow looked over to the light on the desk , then back at the door behind him that led into the darkness that had engulfed the rest of the cabin.

Qrow steeled himself for what he was about to do next.

"A story huh?" He managed to force the words out of his mouth. Ruby Rose nodded her head expectantly. "Well, I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you." The little girl whispered as Qrow dragged a wooden chair from one side of the room over towards the side of her bed closest to the window as the girl tucked herself under the sheets of her bed.

"Well..." Qrow hesitated as he tried to think of any story he had that was worth telling to this little girl. After a moment of realization and hesitation, he began to slowly whisper.

"Ages and ages ago... there was a forest. A bunch of animals lived in the forest. And one of them was a bird. The animals in this forest weren't the nicest of folk. Bunch of as-" Qrow caught himself as he remembered his audience. "Bunch of jerks. Yes. They were _jerks_. And so was this bird."

"But one day, a girl entered into the forest. Now this girl was very different from all the animals in the forest. She was kind. She helped others. One day, she met this bird and asked him, "Bird, why are you so rude?"

_This sounds awful._ Qrow could barely listen to himself. Any author would likely cringe at his storytelling. But the little girl looked up to him with wide eyes, so he continued. "The bird didn't have a good answer to this. So he began to follow the girl around. Before long, he was joined by his sister bird and a dragon."

_This doesn't even make any sense Qrow._ The little girl, however, didn't seem to care a wit. "Now, these four people worked together for years. They fought side by side and slayed hundreds of Grimm under the guidance of this girl. Now, over time, the bird stopped being so much of a jerk. The girl was smarter... wiser than he was. That's why they made her leader after all." Qrow said, fully realizing something he had known for quite some time. _Ozpin made Summer a leader of their team for more than just her silver eyes, didn't he._ "They knew what they were doing."

"They?" The little girl asked.

"Oh. Umm..." Qrow thought for a moment before answering. "Well, the two birds and the dragon of course."

"Oh."

"Anyways..." Qrow said, forcing himself to go on through the story. "Before long, the Dragon and the bird's sister fell in love, and the two of them were happy together. Until one day... until one day she... she was kidnapped. The Grimm took her."

"Of course, her friends were all worried about their friend." Qrow said, oblivious to the redundancy and wondering how he could turn what happened next into a children's story.

* * *

_Qrow held the infant in his hands, looking down at his young niece with a smile on his face. He was sitting on the couch in the living room of his family's cabin, talking to the newborn baby girl._

_"Now... you be a good girl while I'm gone. Tai's going to be a horrible influence on you, so don't listen to a thing he says. Got it?" Qrow chuckled at his own joke, knowing full well the girl wasn't old enough to even understand him, let alone follow his advice._

_"Qrow." The huntsman looked up and saw Summer rose, standing at the bottom of the stairs. Wrapped up in her white cloak as always. She had hid behind that thing from the day he had met her in Beacon. He made eye contact with her beautiful silver eyes as she began to speak, "You know you don't have to do this, right?" Her voice was sweeter than a song to him. It had been for quite some time._

_"Huh?"_

_"I'll go. She's your niece. You deserve to spend these moments with her."_

_The smile faded from his face as he stood up from the couch and walked over to her. "Summer" he said. "Thank You. I mean it. But tell me the truth. Tell me that if you had a sibling, captured by God-knows-who, that you would let me take your place while you stayed at home and did nothing to help her."_

_"Qrow-" Summer tried to comply, but her voice refused. She knew the answer just as well as he did. The thought would never cross her mind. The woman didn't have a selfish bone in her body._

_"Summer, you don't understand..." Qrow hesitated a moment before continuing. "Or maybe you do. I don't know. Raven wasn't just my sister. After what happened to my parents, she was the only one who was there for me beyond Grandpa Jay, and while the old man cared about me, you know he wasn't exactly the nurturing type. I would have died more than a dozen times if it wasn't for her. How can I just leave her when she needs me the most?"_

_Qrow handed the sleeping girl over to Summer, "You taught me better than that you know." Qrow wasn't a fool. He knew he had been a less than stellar model for huntsmen for quite some time. The cloaked woman before him had changed all that though. She had that effect on people. Of course, it helped that Qrow had loved her for several years now._

_And for years, he had known better than to say anything about it. She was out of his league in so many ways._

_But now..._

_Summer held the baby in her arms. "I don't even need to ask you to watch her as if you were your own daughter, do I?" Qrow asked. "You're going to do that whether I want you to or not."_

_"Yep!" Summer said as she gently rocked the baby back and forth in her arms. Qrow wrapped his arms around Summer, hugging her. Maybe for a bit longer than he should have._

_When he was finished and separated from her, he rested his hands on her shoulders. "I'll be back with that little girl's mommy before you know it..." Qrow hesitated before he spoke up again. "I'll... I'll miss you."_

_"Me too." Summer said. Her smile seemed to have faltered somewhat, realization reaching her eyes. "Come back soon, okay!"_

_Qrow stopped at the door and turned to face his partner with a smirk on his face. "Will do, captain!" With that, Qrow picked up his scythe and headed out on his quest to save his sister._

* * *

"And so the bird, the dragon, and the girl set out together." Qrow lied. "They cared so much for their friend that they traveled all across Remnant just to save her. They searched for two long years, and battled hundreds of monsters. But they didn't care. They were all good friends." Qrow stopped there, hoping that the girl wouldn't ask him to tell him what happened next.

* * *

_Raven stood before him, her back facing him. Her long black hair billowed in the wind as it always had. Qrow payed no attention to his surroundings. A nevermore could have been swooping down from the sky to swallow him whole, and he wouldn't have even noticed._

_He had found his sister. Nothing else mattered to him in that moment._

_All of these years of searching would finally be over. He'd traveled from one end of the planet to another, fought against types of grimm he had never known even existed. Listened to countless lies about his sister. That she was one of them now. Nothing but lies. They had to have taken her. He knew his elder sister better than he knew himself. She had put up with when he was a kid, and he knew he hadn't been the best of little brothers. But she had loved him anyways. She would never consider doing something so vile as abandoning her own daughter._

_She was better than Summer. She had practically raised him when her parents were gone. She was the caring mother to his adorable little niece. She was the woman who had grown up beside him. They were the Branwen siblings, and the whole world wouldn't be able to keep them apart._

_He was with his big sister now. It would be all right._

_"Raven!" Qrow cried out, his voice filled with joy, running towards her._

_The woman standing before him turned towards him and all at once, Qrow began to notice his surroundings as he stopped in his tracks. The howling wind blowing through his hair. The dark clouds blotting out the moon and blacking out the sky. The smell of ozone and ash in the air. The cliff over which his sibling stood. His mind raced and raced to try and avoid the undeniable truth of what was standing before him._

_His big sister faced him now, the mask of a grimm covering her face. "I was wondering how long it would take for you to join me. I thought you would have come here sooner." Raven said, a faint happiness in her voice. The mask completely covered her face, leaving only narrow slits through which Qrow could see blazing red eyes._

_"Raven... what are you doing wearing that thing? What are you doing here?"_

_"You genuinely were trying to save me? Really Qrow, I had heard rumors, but truly hoped better of you." Raven shook her head. As if she were a parent disappointed in their child. "Well, no matter. You can join me now." Raven began to step forward, and Qrow noticed that she was holding another grimm mask in her hands that Qrow knew would fit his face. The woman began to step towards him. "This is what we've always wanted, isn't it?"_

_"Raven, what are you talking about. You have a daughter- Yang needs her mom. I traveled, I've fought, I've killed, just to find you here. I'd do it all again. Come with me, sister. Come back home."_

_Raven tilted her head to the side, as if she were confused. For as well as Qrow knew her older sister, even he couldn't read her emotions from behind that damnable mask. Qrow pulled out his scroll and opened up to the photos of Yang he'd taken back in the cabin. "Raven, you put up with me for years. This girl-"_

_"And I'd rather die than do that again." The monster before him said, her voice flat but edged with steel._

_Qrow was taken aback by the words of the beast before him. "Raven... what did I-"_

_"Oh don't take it personally." She said, as if that would reassure him. "You were fun to be with. And besides, that's in the past now. You want to be with me, right?" The monster held up the mask of it's ilk as it continued. "This can be our day. We can be together. Free from all the burdens and shackles mankind has placed on us. Our family has done this before. We can do it again."_

_Qrow started stepping back, away from the demon that was once his sister. "Raven... what happened to you? What did they do to you? When did you become so... so... so selfish? What happened to the woman who gave birth to my niece?"_

_"They, whoever you think they are, did nothing. And my daughter will join me once she comes of age. But for all your faults Qrow, I never took you for a hypocrite. You, of all people, accuse me of selfishness?"_

_The words stung deeply. Her sister was right. Seeing his weakness, Raven pressed him further. "Did Summer really clip your wings so much, little brother? All I'm asking you to do is what you've always wanted."_

_Qrow deeply inhaled and shut his eyes, trying to hide the agony that his sister was causing him._

_"Besides," Raven continued. "You won't have anyone waiting for you when you get back."_

_"I'm not going back." Qrow said angrily, disregarding the lie that had just come out of his sister's mouth. "Not without my sister."_

_Raven stood motionless for a moment before lifting up her weapon in one hand and her mask in the other. "Then you have two choices. Make one."_

_With trembling hand and wrath growing in his heart, Qrow pulled his weapon out from behind his back and readied his sword. Raven cast the other mask to the side as she drew a long purple blade of dust out of her sheath._

_"Even if I have to drag you back home unconscious, I am not leaving without my little niece's mother." Qrow said, realizing the absurdity of his proposal as he said it. Rain began to fall and obscure his vision._

_Raven gave no response, and through his blurred vision he saw the world around him get darker. Raven brought the edge of her sword over her left hand, over the same spot she had gashed when she was little. A swirling darkness coalesced itself beneath her feet, and Qrow staggered back in horror as the monster before him slowly lifted up in the air._

_The monster cut her hand, a tenebrous energy flowing from the wound and up into the sky. Lighting made of some vile red force filled the clouds in the sky above him, red lightning arcing through the clouds above him. As a bolt of red lightning landed on his sister's blade, it was shot down towards him. Qrow rolled out of the way, only to be greeted by his sister when he stood back up again._

_The rain fell; the thunder roared; the blade of darkness hummed with some vile energy as the light and the dark fought in the storm. The darkness grew, and grew, while the light was slowly snuffed out._

_A spirit can only take so much before it breaks._

_Qrow rolled on the ground, the wounds overwhelming him. A he was on his hands and knees, the monster began to walk towards him._

" _Qrow… why would you make me do this?", she asked, flicking her brother's blood off the edge of her blade. "I offered you everything you've ever wanted. Why would you turn me away?"_

_As his former sister approached him, Qrow looked up at the monster she had become, earning a kick in the stomach which sent him to his back._

" _If you won't join me, and you won't leave…" Raven placed her blade next to his throat, "then this is the only option I have left. Goodbye, little brother." His sister lifted up her blade._

" _Okay…"_

_The demon's blade halted, her head tilted to the side in curiosity._

" _I'll… I'll go. Forever." Qrow said, all the fire and wrath out of his voice as he laid broken on the ground. The lights in the sky suddenly were snuffed out, leaving him nearly blind._

_Something lifted him up, and he felt his wounds closing. "You'll come back to me in the end little brother. I'll see you soon." The monster whispered in his ear. With that, he was thrown backwards, and felt some dark energy wash over his body._

* * *

Luckily for Qrow, the little girl he had saved earlier knew the answer. "And they saved the bird's sister!" The little girl said, with total confidence.

_No. I didn't even have the courage to let her kill me then and there._ He said that he would leave. That he wouldn't try to make his big sister come home again.

_And worst of all, I meant it._ Qrow could only nod his head at the little girl's words, not trusting himself to lie with his words. He hoped the girl wouldn't be able to determine falsehood through a simple head motion.

The light-bulb in the red lamp flickered for a moment before Qrow continued. "And so... when that adventure was done, these people went on with their lives." He said flatly.

* * *

_The portal Raven sent him through had opened up outside a town on Patch._

_Qrow found the nearest bar and got a drink._

_Then another._

_Then another._

_After a few days of blackouts, Qrow stumbled his way through the forest and back towards the cabin. Out of a nightmare, and into a more personal form of hell._

_It was Summer who had opened the door, holding a little baby girl in her eyes. She looked up at him in first in shock and joy... then in horror, knowing full well what this would mean._

_They explained it to him. Raven had come to them, personally. Said she had no interest in raising her niece and that Qrow was with her. That neither of them had ever cared. Taiyang had lost his love, Summer lost her closest friend: her partner not only in battle but also in life. Summer had held out hope for months that Raven was wrong, that Qrow would come back any day._

_She eventually stopped waiting, and Yang needed a stable home to grow up in. And so, helping each other through their own griefs, the two of them had fallen in love themselves and had been wed. Summer was so happy to have him back, but Qrow could see the guilt in her eyes every time she looked at him. So Qrow left, moving into some cheap apartment in Patch's biggest port, Stitch._

_And for the next two years, he drank his sorrows away._

* * *

"And they were happy, right?" Ruby asked him.

"Huh?" Qrow asked the little girl as the light began to flicker even more.

"Well, the girl and the dragon and the bird saved the sister. So then they were all happy. Right?" The little girl's confidence in her own statement began to waver.

* * *

_"Qrow..." Summer Rose reached out for him from underneath her white cloak. As if that would shield her from the decrepit condition of the bar and the world around her. Her voice was pleading and desperate._

_"Just leave me alone." Qrow managed to say, his voice slurred from the copious amounts of alcohol he had been consuming for the last... well, for the last two years, really. "I'm done with all this mess."_

_Summer had been by his side for hours. She was going on a mission, and she needed his help. But that's not even the main reason she was here, although there was an air of desperation in her voice usually absent._

_She had visited her old partner every week. Every week- barring times she was on missions- since he had come back from his journey in disgrace._

_"I already told you - you were wrong about me. 'Bout all of this." Qrow waved his arm in the air. "Just go back home to that little girl of yours. Enjoy it while you can... it will die like everything else one day."_

_"No it won't!" Summer said forcefully. She didn't shout, he had seen her shout before. But as Qrow looked up at the huntress, he saw an anger in her eyes that he had never seen in her. "I don't care what Raven said to you. She was wrong about you. She was wrong about all of this. Don't you remember what you said to me when you left out to find her? What happened to you since then?"_

_"Raven. Life. Reality." Qrow said, taking another drink of alcohol._

_Summer inhaled sharply. "Qrow, I'm sorry." Qrow looked up at the woman he had once loved and saw her silver eyes fill with water. "I never should have believed that... that bitch." Some faint sense of surprise registering through the thick veil of alcohol. Summer almost never swore. The cloaked woman turned to leave taking a few steps before stopping. "I suppose you're right. I was wrong about you." She turned around to face him one last time. "You're better than I ever thought you were. You came back. And you stayed in spite of what Raven did to us. I should have trusted you. I should have known better. You are worth so, so much more than you say you are. And you're tossing away your life for nothing!" Qrow saw tears streaming out of her eyes in full force. "Why can't you see that, you miserable crow?"_

_With those final words, Summer turned away and wiped the tears from her eyes before setting out on her final mission._

_And as Summer Rose left his life forever, Qrow had no response but to order another drink._

* * *

Qrow placed his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands as he realized the truth.

_Summer was right. All this time._ The little girl in front of him was answer enough to that question. He had saved her.

_And I abandoned her when she needed me the most. I betrayed her._

_I'm the reason Summer's dead._

Qrow felt the tears welling up in his eyes, doing his best to keep them from the girl in front of him. "You're not supposed to cry." Qrow turned his head at the little girl, who he could tell was trying to restrain tears of her own, trying to remain quiet so she wouldn't wake up her big sister, "Heroes don't cry... Daddy and Yang keep trying to tell me that Mommy isn't coming back," the young girl's sentence began to snowball into a mess, "and they get sad and they cry and I try to tell them that the good guys don't cry because we're good and we don't lose," Ruby's tears were clearly visible now as she continued, "and Mommy's coming back so the heroes don't cry-"

Qrow picked up Ruby Rose from the bed, resting the little girl's forehead against his shoulder. "Yeah, they do, kiddo." With that, a floodgate seemed to open, and the young girl sobbed and sobbed for minutes right alongside Qrow.

The red lamp in the room went out.

But in the place of the old light, came a new light. While the sun was not yet up, some dim, grey early morning light filled the room from the window.

_I'm sorry, Summer. I failed you. But I won't fail your daughter. I promise. Besides, it's about time I return the favor you did for me and Yang, right?_ Qrow let out a sardonic chuckle as the young girl finished crying and Qrow placed her back in her bed. Qrow wiped the tears from his own eyes as he turned to talk to the young girl."Get some sleep kiddo. You'll need it."

"But what will I do if the scary monsters that took Mommy come for me?" She said, wiping the remnants of tears from her eyes, looking as frightened as she had been back in the forest.

"I'll be right here to make sure that doesn't happen. I promise."

The little girl nodded as she moved over towards the side of the bed closest to where Qrow was sitting, grabbing a piece of his tattered cloak in her tiny fist. Clutching on to it as if it was the most valuable thing in the world. 

Qrow sat there all the way through the sunrise, and beyond that.

And for the first time in years, Qrow found something to smile about.

_Just like old times._

**Author's Note:**

> AN: This chapter is my entry for the April Moncon over on R/RWBY. I have some ideas that I will likely use to continue this story in the hopefully not too distant future.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.


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